A customer checks his smartphone app that eases finding a taxi. [Photo/China Daily]

How to regulate appears to be the question when it comes to the management of online car hailing services by which one can use a smartphone to call a private car for a paid ride instead of a taxi.

But if in the minds of the regulators it is only the question of how such new services can be brought under official control, instead of how their management can make it easier for the car hailing services to develop in a healthy manner, the Ministry of Transportation will be managing the convenient and flexible new services in the same way as traditional taxis.

Yet the old mode of management for the taxi industry has long been the focus of complaints and criticism from both taxi drivers and the general public.

Given their convenience and flexibility, car hailing services have proved very popular with the public and greatly squeezed the profit margin of traditional taxis. Under such circumstances, it is the mode of management for traditional taxis that should be reformed, not restrictions on competition that are needed.

While it is indeed necessary for the online car hailing services to be properly regulated, that does not mean that such services should be managed the same way as their traditional counterparts are. The popularity such services enjoy with users is because they have made up for the deficiencies in the service provided by traditional taxis.

For the supervision of car hailing services, regulators need to change their mentality so that they exercise their power to promote and protect free competition in the market rather than prohibit it, unless such competition infringes upon the rights and interests of consumers.

Let's wait and see whether the rules will give the new service providers a fair market status as they deserve.